


A Very Mabifica Chrismas!

by Coniferoussiblings



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, F/F, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, mabifica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 05:51:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5036275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coniferoussiblings/pseuds/Coniferoussiblings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A college AU story where Pacifica Northwest searches for the perfect gift for her girlfriend Mabel Pines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Very Mabifica Chrismas!

Pacifica pursed her lips speculatively as she examined the display of bracelets behind the glass case. Diamonds glittered up from the black velvet pad like fallen stars, rows of small expertly cut stones set with geometric precision into delicate chains of gold and platinum.

“Can I help you with something miss?” the woman behind the counter asked, her smile overly wide. The thick makeup she wore to hide the beginnings of the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes only served to age her further, and for a brief moment Pacifica was reminded of her mother.

Pacifica glanced up from the case, slightly frustrated. This was the fourth jewelry store that she’d been to this week and she still hadn’t found anything that she thought would make a good gift for Mabel. Normally she enjoyed spending her free time wandering around high-end shops but the experience wasn’t nearly as much fun when nothing she found looked  _right_.

“I’m looking for a Christmas present for… someone special,” Pacifica said, hesitating a beat mid-sentence.

Old habits die hard, and even after having dated Mabel for almost half a year Pacifica still had a little trouble saying ‘girlfriend’ out in public.

“A special lady?” the shopkeeper asked delicately, glancing down at the decidedly feminine bracelets that Pacifica had been examining just a moment ago.

Pacifica felt a warm flush threaten to rise to her face but she kept herself composed and fought it back down - there was nothing accusing about the woman’s tone, she was just trying to learn more about her customer.

“Yes,” Pacifica said, forcing her usual tone of practiced indifference into her voice.

“Well we have quite a selection available – if there’s any piece in particular that you’d want to see just ask and I can bring it out,” the clerk said with the same too bright smile as before.

Pacifica glanced back at the case again and shook her head. She tried to picture one of those slender gold baubles on Mabel’s wrist and could all too easily imagine it getting lost in the tangle of odd charms and plastic neon bangles that she routinely wore. Gold and diamonds might even end up looking  _dull_ when compared to Mabel’s usual overly colorful style.

“I’m not really sure about those… do you have anything more, I don’t know – artistic?” Pacifica asked.

“Artistic?” the clerk asked, “In what way? We have a number of beautiful designer pieces in this case here-”

“Yes, I’ve seen them. They’re very lovely but I’m looking for something different… do you have anything more creative? Something sillier?” Pacifica said.

“Sillier?” the clerk asked, her face twisting to a puzzled frown.

“Yes. Sillier. Like, I don’t know… a pendant shaped like an animal doing something ridiculous or anything like that?” Pacifica asked.

The friendliness was completely gone from the clerk’s expression now and her reply was curt to the point rudeness- Pacifica’s earlier mental comparison of the woman to her mother seemed more appropriate than ever.

“No. I don’t think we do.”

“Do you know where I could find anything like that?” Pacifica asked.

“You might want to try a gumball machine if you’re looking for something like that, or perhaps the prize bin at Hoo-Ha Owls Fun Time Jamboree.”

Now the red was definitely in Pacifica’s face, but from anger rather than embarrassment.

_Does she have any idea who I am?_

She was ready to snap out a biting response but held herself back, forcing a wide smile on her own face.

“Well thanks for your time anyway,” she said with icy sweetness, turning on her heel and exiting the shop.

It had taken Pacifica quite a long while to get used to the fact that belonging to the richest family in Gravity Falls turned out to be incredibly meaningless to people living outside of the borders of that small strange town. Here in California she was treated respectfully enough, as people tended to treat anyone who looked like they might have money to give them, but with nothing like the fawning adoration she’d grown accustomed to in her hometown. The change had been incredibly jarring to her at first, but fortunately she’d had Mabel around to show her to ropes to being…  _normal._

Well, as normal as Mabel got anyway.

Pacifica snapped a picture of the small jewelry boutique on her phone and attached a small text note to it reading:

“ _Buy this out later, fire everyone, turn into mudflap outlet!”_

The message was sent and added to a small folder on her computer where she kept track of the various ideas and plans that came to her for what to do after she finally inherited the family business from her father. Half of them were ideas for actual serious business ventures, but the other half were mostly petty plans for revenge against anyone who had slighted her. She told herself that the latter plans were mostly just a way of blowing off steam and she was sure that when the reins of the family fortune finally were in her hands that she wouldn’t actually carry any of them out.

Probably.

The small spiteful glow of imagining herself personally firing the rude clerk faded though when she remembered that she still hadn’t managed to find a present for Mabel.

_It’s not like she would have hated a bracelet or anything… but I can picture her just looking at it and saying that it was 'nice’. Like I’d just given her some socks or something._

_Why couldn’t I have just dated a normal girl – one who would probably be overjoyed by a regular expensive piece of jewelry?_

She blew out an exasperated sigh.

 _Because if she was normal then she wouldn’t be Mabel,_ Pacifica thought to herself _._

_I’m still back at square one though – what would be right for her? Her own personal mini-golf course? No… that would probably be way too expensive, even for me… plus she wouldn’t be able to take it with her anywhere._

Pacifica walked slowly toward her car, her head bent low in thought.

_What if I try and MAKE her something? She’d never see that coming!_

For a moment she felt a sudden rush of excitement at having finally cracked the problem, but that quickly faded as she considered the practical aspects of the plan.

_Crap… how do you actually make things though? I mean, she’s always giving me scarves and hats and stuff that she’s made, but whenever she tries to show me how it works I just get frustrated or bored._

_I guess I could just hire someone to knit something or paint something or whatever and just say that I did it… no, that wouldn’t be good._

_What if she found out that I didn’t make it? She’d break up with me for sure… I guess I could kill the creator so no one else would ever know the secret… but then I’d have to cover up the murder._

Pacifica paused mid-step as she suddenly realized how absurd those last few thoughts had been.

_How on earth did I go from trying to think up a good Christmas present to wondering how to dispose of a body?_

_Mabel._

_Mabel is how this happened. Even when she’s not here she somehow manages to make things weird._

Pacifica felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. No one else could break through her resolve like Mabel could… the girl was simultaneously the most frustrating and wonderful person that Pacifica had ever met. Her clothes, her attitude, her sense of humor - she was as one of a kind as people came, especially considering the incredibly cliquish circles that Pacifica had been surrounded by for most of her life. Even now after having been her friend, and far more than her friend, for so long Pacifica wasn’t really sure that she understood what made Mabel tick.

_And that’s really the heart of the problem here - I don’t know for sure what she wants._

_What I need is an expert – a consultant… someone who knows Mabel inside and out… but who do I know who would be a good consultant for what to get Mabel?_

Pacifica frowned to herself at the thought. The only friends of Mabel’s that she really knew were Candy and Grenda, and they still hadn’t quite forgiven Pacifica for the fact that she had made their lives a living hell throughout their childhoods. Even if she hadn’t antagonized them for a few years now the task of getting to speaking terms with either of them would probably take longer than just the week till Christmas came around.

_Is there anyone else who might… oh crap… I think I know just the person._

Pacfica pulled out her phone and grimaced as she flipped through the contacts list… this might be painful, but if it meant finding the perfect gift for Mabel it would be worth it.

With a resigned sigh she opened up the texting screen and began composing a message to Dipper Pines.

* * *

Dipper glanced up in annoyance from the living room couch as Mabel stomped past him once again, her head hung low and her arms clasped behind her back in the most over-exaggerated 'thinking’ pose that he’d ever seen. Sometimes he was sure that his sister had consciously chosen to pick up most of her body language from old Looney Tunes cartoons rather than actual people. He tried to turn back to the book in his hand, but before he could finish reading a page she’d whirled around and paced back once again, passing distractingly close to him.

He sighed loudly, letting her know that she’d won this round of the game.

“Gee Mabel, is there something on your mind?” he asked, his voice laced with enough sarcasm to choke a horse.

Mabel glanced up at him, an extremely unconvincing look of surprise on her face.

“Oh, Dipper - I almost didn’t see you there. I was busy thinking,” she said, almost sounding as though she had rehearsed the line.

Dipper rolled his eyes, but decided to play along.

“Thinking about what?” he asked.

Mabel stopped in her tracks, straightening up and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

“Weeeelll… you know Christmas is coming up, right?” she asked him.

Dipper’s eyes swiveled around over the many, he would argue an excessive amount of, holiday decorations that Mabel had put up around their small shared apartment almost the minute after they had returned from their parents’ house from the Thanksgiving break.

“I seem to recall hearing something about that on the news yeah,” he said dryly, “I think someone said that they were going to be doing it every year now - but who knows if that will catch on?”

“Right, right - you’re a cynical butt, I got it,” Mabel said, “but the problem is that the biggest gift giving day of the year is like, a week away & I have exactly zilch to give Paz.” Mabel said, a worried tone coming into her voice.

“Really?” Dipper asked, genuine surprise in his voice, “I never would have figured that would be a problem for you. Don’t you give her stuff all the time?”

“Yes, but that’s just regular every day kind of stuff - this is Christmas darn it! Not only that, it’s also our first big couple-type holiday together and I am just flat out lost about what to do! What could I possibly buy for someone who wears outfits that cost more than a whole semesters worth of classes while I’m living on a Ramen-diet budget?” Mabel asked.

“Look, unless you win the lottery in the next few days you aren’t going to be able to buy your way through this - you’ve just got to find her something that she can’t get from a store,” Dipper said.

“Like what? Have you ever been inside of her house Dipper?” Mabel asked somewhat hysterically, “I’m pretty sure that her parents have enough money to literally buy Happiness! Like, by the pound.”

Dipper shrugged helplessly.

 **“** Search me, that had just seemed like the most obvious answer to the question.”

Mabel plopped down on the couch beside him and leaned back into the lumpy cushions, staring at the ceiling as she let her mind wander.

 **“** Okay… something that money can’t buy… do you think there might be something in the Journal that could make for a good Christmas present?” Mabel asked.

Dipper frowned at the mention of the old book, now tucked safely away in a locked briefcase under his bed.

“I’m not really sure that’s a great idea Mabel.”

 **“** Why not? You were always using that Journal to find stuff for yourself, why shouldn’t I get a little use out of it?” she asked hotly.

 **“** Because almost all of the stuff in there is incredibly dangerous! It’s full of weird cursed junk and monsters, not exactly things that you can put a big poofy bow on and then slip under the tree,” Dipper said.

Mabel recalled the few times that she’d flipped through the book herself and grimaced at her memories of some of the illustrations - as well as the often terrifying instances when she’d come face to face with those very creatures in person.

 **“** Alright, I see your point. I just wanted to find her something really special, you know?” Mabel said.

Dipper laid a comforting hand on his sister’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and she laid her own hand over his to return the gesture.

 **“** Why don’t you just make her something? You’ve got artistic talent out the butt, there’s no way you couldn’t make her something really one of a kind.” Dipper said earnestly.

“I guess I’m worried that she might be all crafted out – I’m always giving her stuff that I made and I don’t want her to get sick of it,” Mabel said.

“I’m pretty sure that if she was sick of getting stuff from you that she wouldn’t have been going out with you this long,” Dipper reassured her.

“Well, can you at least go with me – I’m thinking of heading out to the mall and maybe having another set of eyes could be helpful,” Mabel asked, consciously putting on her most pleading puppy-dog eyes possible.

_Ugh… going to the mall a week before Christmas? Maybe we should just use the journal instead - who knows, Pacifica might like a pet Leprecorn or something?_

He turned to Mabel and felt his resolve get blasted into nothing in the face of her overly-pouty expression and gave in with a grunt.

“Fine, we can go to the mall - but you’re driving.” Dipper agreed with a sigh.

Mabel gave a happy squeal and wrapped her arms around him for a chokingly tight hug before running off to her room to get ready for the trip out. Dipper glanced around the room looking for the last place he’d thrown his shoes after coming in and felt the phone in his pocket start vibrating. Dipper glanced down at his buzzing phone and felt his eyes widen slightly in surprise when he saw the source of the message.

 **Pacifica** : Pines, I have a favor to ask. Don’t tell Mabel.

Dipper glanced up and looked around the living room, but he could still hear Mabel pawing through her closet for a jacket in her room down the hall.

 **Dipper** : Is not telling Mabel the favor?

 **Pacifica** : The sarcasm isn’t as charming as you probably think it is. No – I want to hire you on as a consultant.

His eyebrows quirked up in confusion. He and Pacifica hadn’t made it a secret that they didn’t really get along, to Mabel’s annoyance, and the thought of Pacifica wanting his advice for  _anything_ seemed completely alien to Dipper.

 **Dipper** : What exactly would I be advising you on?

 **Pacifica** : I need to find something perfect for Mabel and I thought you’d be the best person to ask. Would one hundred dollars be enough for your time?

Dipper felt vaguely insulted at the thought that she was trying to buy his time and considered refusing her outright, but then his stomach rumbled at the thought of how much food he could get with that kind of money… maybe even something with real meat in it!

_Well, Grunkle Stan used to say that every man has his price… I guess mine is being able to eat something other than ramen and macaroni for once._

**Dipper** : Sure why not? Give me a minute and I’ll let you know what I can come up with.

Dipper sat back in thought for a few minutes, mulling over a few ideas in his head and suddenly began to regret his impulsive decision to act as Pacifica’s consultant. Just one week till Christmas and he was being asked to go help  _two_ people find gifts. For each other. This could very easily become a nightmare if he didn’t find some way out of it.

_What can I do though?_

His eyes scanned the room as a sudden bolt of inspiration came to him and he hopped off the couch and snatched two decorations off the oversized artificial tree that took up half the space in the living room of the twins small apartment, stuffing them into the pocket of his jacket.

Dipper grabbed his phone off the couch where he had left it and fired off a quick question to Pacifica.

* * *

Pacifica glanced at her phone again and suppressed an unladylike curse that came to mind. She’d been waiting at the foodcourt of the mall now for almost twenty minutes for Dipper to show up and he still wasn’t there yet.

_Why am I the one waiting around for him? I thought he was supposed to be working for ME in this situation?_

Almost as if by magic her phone gave a chime and she turned back down to it.

 **Dipper** : Sorry about the delay, traffic was a killer. Be there in a few minutes.

Pacifica considered sending a sarcastic reply back, but decided against it… as much as she hated to admit it to herself she really needed his help right now and he could be incredibly obstinate when pushed.

Besides, she couldn’t think of a good one at the moment anyway.

She amused herself for a few minutes playing some goofy ap game that Mabel had gotten her addicted to. She’d never admit it to her in person, but Pacifica had become just slightly obsessed with trying to get onto the High Score table… or at least beating out Mabel’s own score.

She was so distracted by the game that she ended up almost jumping up in surprise when Dipper pulled the chair out from the table and sat down across from her. She glanced up at her score and noted with a pained expression that she was just a few points away from breaking her personal best, but she shut down the game regardless.

“Alright Pines, you’ve kept me waiting long enough - what’s this idea of yours?” Pacifica asked coolly.

Dipper gave her a small frown and pulled out his own phone, which was buzzing in his hands.

“If you give me a minute I’ll actually have the perfect present for Mabel all ready for you - giftwrapped even.” he said as he eyed the screen and tapped out a quick message.

She eyed him suspiciously, wondering what he could have just sent but decided against asking. It might not even be related to this situation, but she highly doubted it. A few minutes of awkward silence passed with neither of them attempting small talk when an annoyed voice suddenly cut through the loud murmuring background noise of hundreds of people shopping like mad.

“Yo, Dipstick! Where are you?” Mabel called out.

Pacifica shot a furious glance at Dipper.

“I thought I had told you not to tell Mabel!” she said.

“I hadn’t - she’s here for a totally different reason,” Dipper said.

Pacifica was about to respond when she saw Mabel homing in on their table - apparently she had only spotted Dipper at first but when she got closer she froze up, a slightly panicked look on her face.

“Pacifica! What a surprise to see you here,” Mabel said nervously, her eyes shooting daggers at her brother.

“Yeah, completely unexpected.” Pacifica said in a flat tone of voice.

“Okay, we can drop the acts now - I think you both know why you’re here and its not really fooling anyone,” Dipper said.

Mabel frowned at Dipper.

“What’s the deal bro-bro?” she asked.

Dipper dug around in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out two small bows that had previously decorated the twins christmas tree and tossed one lightly toward Pacifica and the other toward Mabel, who caught it easily.

“The deal is that this thing that each of you are doing is insane! The whole point of getting someone a present is to show that person that you care about them, right?” Dipper asked rhetorically.

“Well, yeah,” Mabel said.

“Well you both care about each other so much that you’ve apparently been driving yourselves crazy trying to figure out a way to tell it with some kind of symbolic present thing. You guys were even nuts enough to ask me for help - and I have zero experience with presents. Well, now you both know – so there, that’s my gift to each of you. You’re one another’s presents. Enjoy!” Dipper said.

Pacifica stared at the small ornamental bow in her hand and glanced up at Mabel who blushed and smiled at her.

“You really were going to ask Dipper what to get me?” she asked.

Pacifica felt her face grow warm, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie to that smile.

“Yeah. I wanted to get you something really special,” Pacifica admitted.

Mabel grinned and walked over to the table, bending low to plant a quick kiss on Pacifica’s forehead.

“Me too. I really was driving myself nuts trying to think of what to get you,” Mabel said as she pulled up the chair next to her, and took her hand, lightly running her fingertips across Pacifica’s palm.

“Well, this looks like my cue to leave,” Dipper said as he saw the girls lean in close to one another for a quick kiss on the lips. “Mabel, call me when you’re ready to go back so you can give me a ride home.”

Mabel nuzzled her nose playfully against Pacifica’s, her grin widening at the blush that came to the blondes face when she did so. She dug into the front pocket of her sweater and extracted the keys, tossing them lightly to Dipper.

“You can head out now if you like, I think Paz can give me a ride back later,” Mabel said.

Dipper caught the keys easily in his hand and headed out, leaving the two alone in their own little world.

“You know, you’re brother’s kind of a jerk but he’s not really that bad of a guy all in all.” Pacifica admitted in slightly grudging tone of voice.

“Yeah, grouchy but with a heart of gold. That’s Dipper through and through.” Mabel agreed.

* * *

**Epilogue**

The door swung open and Pacifica was greeted by a blast of warm cinnamon scented air and the thumping noise of music. After a confused second her ears recognized the familiar sounds of old Christmas songs, though for some reason the bass had been cranked up and tampered with to try and turn them into something resembling dance music… the results of the experiment were  _interesting_ , if not exactly good.

“Paz! You made it!” Mabel shouted cheerfully over the din, wrapping Pacifica up in a warm and crushingly tight hug.

While she once might have been uncomfortable with such an open display of affection, Pacifica had grown to love those little gestures from Mabel. The blonde returned the hug gladly and tilted her head down to add a quick but enthusiastic kiss of her own. Mabel’s mouth had a sharp peppermint flavor to it that added an oddly festive note to the kiss, and Pacifica was surprised to feel her girlfriends slim hands slide down her back and start to travel up under her shirt… Mabel was usually pretty bold, but feeling her up in the doorway during a party was a bit much even for her.

To Pacifica’s relief, and admittedly just a tiny bit to her disappointment, Mabel’s hands didn’t go very far – they swept around her back and on to the plane of her stomach where they stopped just long enough to tap something sticky against her skin. Quick as a magician or pickpocket (of which Mabel was occasionally a little bit of both) the brunettes’ hands were back out in the open and giving Pacifica an affectionate pat on the cheek as if nothing unusual had happened.

“What did you just do?” Pacifica asked, her voice tinged with cautious suspicion.

Mabel placed a shushing finger over Pacifica’s lips, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it – I’ll show you later,” she said, taking Pacifica by the hand and leading her into the living room of the small apartment where the party-proper was taking place.

The living room of Mabel’s apartment wasn’t particularly roomy during the best of times, but now with Mabel having apparently invited a sizeable chunk of the student body of the college the place was packed up like a sardine can. Pacifica didn’t recognize most of the other guests, but figured they were probably Mabel’s fellow art majors or any of the friends that she would have met at one of her many clubs. The girl had a habit of starting, joining and abandoning organizations like normal people changed shirts but she almost always made a few friends during her brief stay.

About the only person that Pacifica knew on sight was Dipper, who was standing at the rickety refreshments table chatting enthusiastically with a mousy looking girl in an old Monstermon shirt.

 _It’s a holiday miracle,_ Pacifica thought,  _the nerds found himself a date._

Surprisingly she actually felt a small pang of guilt for having that thought. She swept the unexpected spasm of conscience from her mind and turned to Mabel, trying to make herself heard over the music.

“When you said you we’re having a party at your place I expected something a little smaller,” Pacifica shout-whispered.

Mabel cocked an eyebrow at her as she elbowed her way to the table to grab some drinks, passing a red plastic cup into Pacifica’s open hand.

“Pacifica, I think you of all people would remember the fact that I am a champion party-er,” Mabel said just slightly smugly.

Pacifica grinned back at her and accepted the cup, not surprised to feel a pleasant alcholic sting when she took a sip.

The tune suddenly changed on the speakers and through the distortion Pacifica thought she could recognize the familiar but extremely out of place sounds of the  _Monster Mash_. She turned a confused look toward Mabel who grinned and shrugged at her,

“It’s a holiday song isn’t it?” she said.

Pacifica gave a small snort of laughter at the expressions of disbelief on the faces of the other guests, several of them glancing back down at their drinks with suspicious expressions.

“Would you care to dance?” Mabel asked in a faux courtly voice, bowing low and kissing Pacifica’s hand with exaggerated delicacy.

“Gladly,” Pacifica agreed, tossing back the rest of her drink in a gulp and taking Mabel’s hand in her own.

* * *

Time had passed and the party already looked like it was starting to wind down, though not before there were rounds of drinks, drunken holiday song sing alongs, karaoke contests & enough dancing to make Pacifica wish that she had worn a more comfortable pair of shoes.

The last of the guests were already starting to trickle out the door, and Dipper had already left earlier with his mousy looking lady friend. Pacifica had slipped a hundred dollar bill into the pocket of his jacket before he made it out the door, though she hadn’t told him that she had done so. The important thing is that it was done. A Northwest always paid her debts.

Mabel had just wished the last of the guests a good night and then shut the door, giving a sigh of both sadness and relief that the party was done. The apartment looked like a stampede of particularly glittery rhinoceroses had just gotten done with the place, but that was something to deal with later. She went over to the couch and plopped down beside Pacifica, leaning her head against the blondes shoulder.

Pacifica slipped her arm around Mabel’s shoulders and pulled her in closer, enjoying the flowery scent of Mabel’s shampoo as her curls tickled her nose. As she moved in closer to plant a kiss on her cheek she saw something glitter on her stomach when her shirt had lifted up from movement and she remembered the odd incident at the start of the party.

Pacifica grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged up, revealing a sticker applied to her stomach and just above her belly-button. A glittery and festive looking sticker depicting a bunch of mistletoe.

 _Why would she put a mistletoe sticker on my-_ Pacifica started to think before she looked down at her girlfriends face and saw a familiar expression, something that was halfway between playfulness and desire but definitely 100% Mabel.

 _Ohhhh,_ Pacifica thought, realization dawning on her as she felt her heart speed up slightly and blood rush to her face.

“Well now,” Mabel said with a grin as she shifted around and straddled Pacifica’s lap, leaning in close to brush the long straight strands of hair from Pacifica’s face, “now that everyone else is gone it looks like I’ll finally get to unwrap my Christmas gift.”


End file.
